


Off Tune Chorus

by coffeeshopgays (vityahs)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Arcades, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 19:02:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18834799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vityahs/pseuds/coffeeshopgays
Summary: Based onthis auSasuke and his fake boyfriend Naruto go with Sakura and Hinata to the arcade on a double date.





	Off Tune Chorus

For some reason, Sasuke felt more on edge today than usual. It could be because he was going on a _fake_ double date with his _fake_ boyfriend Naruto tonight, but that was just a hunch. It could also be because him and Naruto were going against their bosses orders to go on this date, although he wasn’t as concerned about that. He’d already made a coffee wrong today, but the lady ordered 20 coffees, so it was easier to brush off as an accident and move on. Maybe just maybe, the closer it got to closing time, the harder it felt to breathe correctly, and he wasn’t sure why. Naruto and him had been forced to stay after work for weeks now to clean up this shop, so it wasn’t like it would be his first experience spending time with the blonde. So, what was different?

“Sasuke,” Naruto snapped him out of his train of thought, Sasuke jumped a little, turning around as his fake boyfriend continued, “I’m going to start cleaning the machines, could you do dishes?” 

“Sure,” Sasuke tried to sound casual, but he was nervous enough that he may break a dish. _Which he could not allow himself to do, seeing as he gave Naruto so much shit for it when they first met._

In less than a half hour they were at the door with Hinata and Sakura, both girls beaming with excitement, “So!” Sakura clapped her hands together, “I’ll drive. So it will look like you guys are still here and Kakashi won't know you’re not doing your punishment.” 

The punishment was to clean every night after work. Naruto and Sasuke were skipping tonight to go on this date, they’d spent last night setting up and turning off the security camera so they could sneak off on this date today without Kakashi, their boss, knowing. Maybe that was why Sasuke felt on edge.

“That works,” Naruto replied, hand on his chin. Sasuke would never admit it outloud, but he was cute. He looked like an idiot. He _was_ an idiot. But overall, he was like a breath of fresh air, except recently it felt like all he was doing was taking Sasuke’s breath away. 

Hinata had found her way next to him without him even noticing, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” 

“Hnn,” Sasuke also could have been on edge because he’d told Hinata all of his feelings this morning. He wasn’t used to talking to people about things, but in his overtired stupor he’d rambled about everything. She knew about their relationship being fake and about how Sasuke cared about Naruto. Now he was in this situation.

“Just have a good time,” Hinata advised, “... and try to stay out of your head.” _She said it as if he had a choice in the matter._

He hadn’t been to an arcade since he was a child, though it’s not like he missed them terribly. The machines buzzing and children wailing were almost like a chorus that was noticeably off tune. One that people still applauded at for some god awful reason. 

“Sasuke!” Naruto yelled across the establishment, garnering more attention than Sasuke would have liked. “Let’s play this one!” 

“Okay,” he dragged his feet across the arcade and came face to face with the biggest gun he’d ever seen. 

“Of course you’d pick that one-” Sakura chimed in from where her and Hinata were putting coins in an air hockey table. Hinata interrupted her by slamming the puck on the table. 

“Yeah, yeah joke all you want!” Naruto yelled back before picking up one of the two guns with orange tips. “I’m gonna kick Sasuke’s ass and that’s all that matters.” 

Sasuke picked up the other, raising an eyebrow. “You’re confident, huh?”

Naruto laughed, “Winner picks the next game.”

Sasuke couldn’t help the smirk that appeared on his face, “Fine.” His nerves weren’t all gone, but he had something different to focus on now. 

“I’ll have you know Kiba and I play shooting games all the time-”

“I would peg him as more of a Nintendogs type of guy,” Sasuke said absentmindedly.

“You’d peg him?” Sakura questioned as she aggressively hit the puck, scoring a point. A couple heads turned, but no one other than him seemed to notice.

“This is a _private conversation_!” Naruto yelled back, pointing the toy gun in her direction threateningly. 

“About pegging Kiba-” Sakura joked.

“About _Sasuke_ pegging Kiba-” Hinata corrected.

“Why did we agree to this double date again?” Naruto asked sighing, leaning back onto Sasuke's shoulder as if the Sakura and Hinata were draining the life out of him with every joke. 

“I’m enjoying it,” Sasuke commented, more to pick at the blonde than anything. Although, when he saw Naruto’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, he couldn’t ignore the fact that a part of him would give anything to stay with Naruto like this for as long as possible. For as long as Naruto would let him stay by his side.

“What? Really?” Naruto seemed to forget the whole argument with Sakura in favor of what the raven had just said. 

“Let’s just play the stupid game,” Sasuke flicked his forehead and turned towards the game, pressing the start button, but he could feel Naruto’s eyes on him. 

“Okay.”

Somehow an hour passed and Sasuke barely even noticed. He was being dragged around the arcade to game after game and somewhere along the way he forgot which games they’d played and which they hadn’t in favor of remembering how Naruto did at each game and whether or not they made the blonde smile. At some point they’d lost sight of Sakura and Hinata, making this a failed double date, but Sasuke didn’t mind all that much. They’d probably meet up again later, either that or they’d have a long walk back to the bookstore to get his car-

“Play air hockey with me!” Naruto was already putting coins into the air hockey machine, so how could he say no.

Sasuke wasn’t good at air hockey, but he wasn’t going to let Naruto beat him that easily. He protected his goal as Naruto hit the puck with all his might. After a while, they were at a standstill and the machine was about to end the game because it was taking too long.

“You just gonna play defense?” Naruto taunted. “That’s funny-”

Sasuke took the chance while he was distracted to hit the puck into his friends goal, “What did you say about defense _babe_?” 

“That was a low blow!” Naruto commented, as the game stopped.

The raven chuckled, “Really? That’s funny if you were playing defensively you may not have lost.” He ignored Naruto’s annoyed groan and pointed to the pool table. “Let’s play.” 

It didn’t take the blonde long to get back into a good mood, “Sure!” 

The pool tables were in a separate part of the establishment, in a large alcove with some tables and chairs, with the three pool tables in the middle. There was a window to a restaurant, which Sasuke assumed was connected to the arcade. You could still hear all the buzz of the arcade, but the vibe was much more relaxed here.

When Naruto went to actually play and almost hit someone in the head with the cue ball, Sasuke slightly regretted his decision to play this game. “You may have to help me a little bit…” his friend scratched the back of his head. “If you don’t mind.” 

“Yeah, help him Sasuke!” Sakura and Hinata obviously chose right now to show up, laughing and winking. Naruto looked like a tomato, denying whatever they were implying, but Sasuke was too busy apologizing to a waitress for all the commotion to care about what they were saying. 

“Do you four want any food?” the waitress asked and the raven felt bad, knowing after only a week working at a cafe, how annoying customers can be.

“We’re okay-” Sasuke started, only to be interrupted by his three friends all chiming in with food they wanted.

“Do you sell ramen here?”

“Can I have a burger?” 

“What do you have for appetizers?” 

Sasuke sighed and grabbed his pool stick, deciding to break, or make the first move of the game, since Naruto… didn’t succeed in doing so. He hit the cue ball and it hit the other balls scattering them around the table. A couple balls making it into the side pockets.

“Woah, you’re good at this.” he didn’t notice Naruto was behind him until that second, jumping slightly at the words. He couldn’t help but notice how close his fake boyfriend’s face was from his and he prayed he wasn’t blushing.

“Thank you?” Sasuke stuttered out, mentally cursing for how stupid it sounded.

“Let me try again!” Naruto begged.

“Sasuke gets to go again because he got a ball in-” Hinata explained. 

“Yeah Sasuke’s good with ball-” 

“Your drinks!” the waitress put a couple waters on the table, interrupting Sakura’s joke. Naruto almost doubled over laughing at the timing.

“Thank you,” Sasuke felt like he was the only mature one there. He handed the pool stick over to Naruto, “I’ll take this game to teach you how to play-” 

Sasuke tried to ignore Sakura’s remarks to Hinata in favor of showing Naruto how to hold the pool stick, though he had a feeling all of his information would go in one ear and out the other. “So you just-” he leaned over to grab a pool stick, only to turn and be met with Naruto’s face less than an inch from his. The raven’s eyes widened at the close proximity and he tried to gain composure but he couldn’t help how much he was tripping on his words as he continued, “You hold it like this-” 

He was very aware of not only how close he was to Naruto, but also the other couples’ presence. Teaching someone is difficult when you’re having problems just existing yourself. It was hard trying to explain any concept, when the only thing on his mind was the person next to him. _Naruto._ His blue eyes and how they’re bluer in person, and much bluer up close. His laugh and how adorable it is, though you’d have to actually torture Sasuke to make him admit that out loud. His voice and while, he couldn’t win any of the music games in this arcade, he actually could sing. His smile? Sasuke could probably write an essay on it, single spaced, however many pages- he could write forever.

“Like this?” Naruto asked, finally hitting the cue ball without it landing off the table. Sasuke could swear he heard the waitress sigh in relief.   
“You got one in,” Sasuke pointed out, “You can go again.” 

“No-”

“I’ll go!” Sakura smiled, happily interrupting whatever the hell was going on between them. Sasuke noticed Hinata laughing at the exchange in the corner as she sipped her water. When she noticed him looking over she shrugged. 

Sasuke snuck over to where Hinata was sitting, while Sakura and Naruto bickered over the pool stick. He leaned against the wall and sighed. “You look exhausted,” she commented, causing him to scoff. “... but happy.” 

Why did Naruto have to stop fighting with Sakura at that exact second to look over and give him a stupid smile? How could a smile like that not make someone happy?

“You said it yourself,” she reminded him. “You’re enjoying this.” 

“I just said that to pick on Naruto-” Sasuke backtracked.

“We both know that's a lie,” she replied seriously. There was a momentary break in conversation, where they just watched the other pair fight over a pool stick. Hinata continued, “You’re a terrible liar. I mean Naruto doesn’t know anything, because he’s oblivious, so you don’t need to worry-” 

“Thanks for the encouragement.” 

She picked up her water and took a sip, “Yeah, anytime.” 

“Sasuke! We need help!” Naruto whined. 

“What is it idiot?” the raven sighed, ignoring Hinata chuckling from her seat. 

“How do you hold this thing again?” the blonde asked, scratching the back of his head. The information definitely went in one ear and out the other. 

“Yeah Sasuke, _teach him how to hold his thing-_ ” Hinata whispered causing Sasuke to almost choke on air. 

“You guys are disgusting,” the raven murmured as he went to help his fake boyfriend.

The rest of the night went by fairly quickly, Sasuke wasn’t sure whether it was too quickly or not fast enough. Hinata and Sakura drove them back to his car at the shop and unsurprisingly made a crude comment before they drove away. Sasuke sighed as he unlocked the car and fell into the driver's seat, exhausted. 

“So… did you have a good time?” Naruto asked quietly from the passenger's seat. The raven turned to see him staring at him expectantly, and just like plenty of other times throughout the night, Naruto left him completely lost for words. 

“Yeah,” Sasuke inwardly beat himself up for how horrible that response was. 

Naruto seemed to be fine with it though, a smile appearing on his face, “I’m glad.” He leaned back, running his hand through his hair. It didn’t make Sasuke’s breath hitch or make Sasuke want to play with his hair, _not at all_. “I really wanted you to have a good time.” 

The drive home was mostly quiet, Naruto hummed and changed the music occasionally, but other than that it was quiet. Which wasn’t optimal because it gave Sasuke time to think and all he could think about right now was the person in the passenger's seat. 

“Let’s do this again sometime-” Sasuke blurted at some point, without thinking. His mind and mouth completely out of sync. 

“Sure!” Naruto looked like a car that someone had just jump started. He was abnormally calm a moment ago, but then he just got re-energized in a moment. 

They were close to Naruto’s house, thankfully, so this conversation wouldn’t drag on too long, but Naruto continued, “I still need to beat you at air hockey!” 

“In your dreams idiot,” Sasuke replied quickly. He parked the car and turned on the emergency break. “Did you have a good time?” 

“Huh?”

“Did you have a good time tonight?” Sasuke repeated, for some reason extremely nervous what his response would be.

“Of course I did,” Naruto’s smile was amazing as always.

“Good,” Sasuke tried to hide his relief and the small smile that appeared on his face at the words. 

Naruto got out of the car, but turned back to ask, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning?” 

“Of course,” Sasuke replied, “Text me.” Somehow Naruto had become a routine. A constant. Something he would be afraid to lose. Even though the thought of having someone making him vulnerable scared him, the idea of losing the blonde scared him more. He took a deep breath and watched to make sure Naruto got in the house before he drove away. 

On the car ride home his mind drifted to off tune choruses, and he realized why people applaud them. While yes, they may sound bad- or at least unpleasant, it's really the thought that counts. If someone you love is singing, no matter how it sounds, you'll still appreciate it. Just like the arcade- while it's noisy and children scream constantly, it's still fun when you're with someone you care about. It's enjoyable.

**Author's Note:**

> i listened to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=JnLE_2txSIA) song while writing this, so if you want to listen, go ahead. 
> 
> check out the au on twitter, if you didn't come from there.


End file.
